Private Airstrip Owner Asks Aviation Board for Letter of Support

03/16/11 During Tuesday night’s special meeting of the Plymouth Board of Aviation Commissioners Ryan Rust read a letter from his father, Wendell Rust concerning their private airstrip on the east side of Bourbon near the county line with Kosciusko County.

The letter details the actions of Nordex, one of the world’s leading suppliers of wind turbines. Their principal focus is on units with a high capacity – above all in the megawatt range, the strongest growth segment in the sector. During the past 4 to 5 months Nordex has been contacting and requesting property owners to sign forms to allow wind turbines to be constructed on their properties in the general area of the Rust property.

In 1993 Rust’s Landing, a private airstrip was approved for operation through the proper applications submitted to Marshall County, the State of Indiana, and the FAA. Although Mr. Rust is “not specifically against a wind farm, we want to protect the freedom of flight in and around our registered private airport for our heirs and grandchildren,” the letter stated.

After making contact with Nordex, and reviewing the agreements and documents there was concern that there was no protection for private airstrips. Although representatives volunteered what sounded like reasonable accommodations Rust still has concerns and wrote a Private Airport Turbine Operation Accommodation document on his own.

The letter read by Ryan Rust stated, “I believe it is in the interest of all local airport authorities to support all local aviation operations…..I respectfully request the Aviation Commission to review the Private Airport Turbine Operation Accommodation (PATOA) I have composed and simply consider supporting the PATOA with a letter of sanction.”

Aviation Board members showed interest in the document and decided they would forward it on to the Chicago FAA bureau and to their consultants at Woolpert Engineering for further review.

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